How like David is Jonah at that moment?

Where in David's magnificent Psalm of repentance, Psalm 51, in his spirit of contrition,

in his broken and contrite heart, he asked God to treat him according to his mercy and not

according to his justice, and yet at the same time acknowledges that God would be perfectly right,

perfectly just, and perfectly clear to bring the full judgment of his wrath upon David's own

head. That's the posture of Jonah. That's the posture of all who come to repentance.

Thank you. of all who come to repentance. To receive mercy when we know we deserve justice.

What a beautiful gift.

This is the Friday edition of renewing your mind, and thank you for joining us today.

Yesterday, we began a study of the book of

Jonah. You'll recall it was Jonah who fled from God's calling on his life, or to be more accurate,

he attempted to flee. Today, Dr. Sprole will continue our study of Jonah, but with the help of that

great author of nautical fiction, Herman Melville.

Within the pages of Moby Dick, Melville introduces us to Father Mappell, who reminds the sailors in the novel, and us, that there is nowhere to hide from an omnipresent God.

Here's Dr. Sprole.

I think the greatest sermon ever preached on the book of Jonah was perhaps never really preached.

The only time I heard it, I heard it in the movies, and the preacher was Charles Lawton.

He was in this movie delivering a sermon that was composed for a novel, not for a Sunday

morning service.

It's my favorite novel, of course, Moby Dick.

In the opening chapters of that great work, we find Ishmael, on the Sabbath day before he sets sail and joins Ahab for his pursuit of the great white whale, we find Ishmael roaming through the streets of New Bedford in search of the Whalers Chapel.

And he enters into the chapel that Sabbath morning, and the minister, Father Mapple, rises to the pulpit and delivers a sermon on the book of Jonah. Now, I'm going to do something I almost never do,

...